Square Pianos

By looks, the square piano evolved from reconstructing the clavichord - but the sweet and timid sound of the clavichord could no longer satisfy the musicians appetite for the stronger, more expressive sounds afforded by the piano. This new piano-making industry was still very much in its infancy and was evolving into a competitive business with plenty of scope for experimentation and development.

Remodelling a clavichord-type case to become a square piano demanded some enlargement, a beefed up construction and being fitted with a hammer action.

While the main evolution of the piano followed more along the lines of the harpsichord - ultimately to become what is now the modern grand piano, the square piano was smaller and less expensive and enjoyed immense popularity from about 1760 until declining during the late 1800s.

In London there were many makers but, Johann Zumpe is mostly held responsible for the surge in demand for pianos. These pianos were designed, made and sold from his house in Princes Street, Hanover Square from about 1766. John Broadwood - another big name in piano history - began making square pianos from 1771. 

In Paris, Sebastien Erard made one in 1776 - a copy of the English piano. In America, Johann Behrend of Philadelphia exhibited his square piano in 1775. Within a decade, the square piano was now being made in England, France Germany and America. Chales Albrecht of Philadelphia probably the best of the American makers in the 1780s.

The ’English’ and the ‘German’ or ‘Viennese’ school of action design differed mainly in how the hammer was placed and set in motion. The ‘English’ layout placed the action over the back end of the key with the hammer heads very close to the end of the key. The hammer set in motion via an intermediate lever.

The ‘German’ layout had the action over the back end of the key but this time, with the hammer heads close to the mid point of the key. The hammer pivot point being fixed to an extension on the back end of the key.

Eventually, efforts to improve the ‘German’ approach could not match the kind of performance achieved by the ‘English’ approach and so, it  fell out of favour 

Square pianos were constantly being modified to extract a stronger, more powerful tone. Wooden frames were clearly incapable of meeting these demands. 

String gauges were increased to enhance the volume and tone, thus increasing up to four times, the strain on the earlier, eighteenth-century pianos. To handle this augmented tension and stress, from about 1825, Alpheus Babcock invented the full iron frame. Chickering was granted a patent in 1840 for further improvements to the frame.

To match these striking enhancements, the hammers too, were made larger and heavier, perhaps losing some of its former lightness of touch. 

At the World Fair, Crystal Palace, New York in 1855, Steinway created a sensation with a square piano with a full iron frame and an overstrung scale. After significant initial resistance, accepting the iron frame and the overstrung construction was eventually adopted universally.

Steinway’s celebrated iron-framed, overstrung square grands were more than two and a half times the size of Zumpe's wood-framed instruments that were successful a century before. 

In Europe, square pianos were made until about 1866. By then the upright piano had become the popular choice for the domestic setting. The last American square pianos were made until about 1905. 

© Steve Burden

Americus Backers

 It is not known when or where Americus Backers was born but it is thought his parents were Dutch. The details of his origins seem to be hidden from official record, but by the time of his death in 1778, he had left his signature, as it were, on the unfolding story of piano manufacture. 

Americus moved to Freiberg and was apprenticed to Gottfried Silbermann, the organ, harpsichord and piano builder. Silbermann set up his organ workshop in 1711 and by 1730 was building harpsichords and pianos in both square, and harpsichord cases. Americus is likely to have arrived between 1720 and 1725 but no date can be thought definite.

Twelve ex-apprentices from Silbermann’s workshop came to England about 1760 and began building pianos. Americus Backers, among the first to arrive, brought Silbermann's Cristofori-type action and refined it to produce a reliable and responsive version which he fitted to a grand harpsichord case. This new, groundbreaking piano was a great turning point in the story of keyboard instruments, the harpsichord’s days were numbered, as Americus’s gift to English music became the blueprint for what we recognise as the modern grand piano!

Backers Action 1777

The eleven other ‘apostles’ also established themselves as piano builders though they favoured the square piano. Most well-known was Johannes Zumpe. 

1763 Americus’s moved his home and workshop to Jermyn Street, London. John Broadwood and Robert Stodart, both apprentices to Burkat Shudi would often visit Americus in the evenings to help his work on perfecting the escapement feature on his action.

To conclude, the Backers ‘piano in a harpsichord case’ was the first of what was to become known as the 18th Century English grand piano. There is no exact date for the very first instrument to be offered for sale but its earliest appearance in public was in 1770.

In 1776, Americus had perfected his action as far as he could he take it - simplifying and improving the best features of the Cristofori action. His principles were used as the model for the English action.

Americus Backers died at his home in Jermyn Street, London in 1778. His contribution to the development of piano construction was of the utmost significance.

©Steve Burden